iOS 6 to Get Real Google Maps App By End of the Year?

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Google is currently developing a new maps application for Apple's newest operating system - the iOS 6, according to new rumors.

An unnamed source has reportedly told the New York Times that Google is seeking to finish the new map application by the end of the year.

It was expected that Google maps would remain on the iPhone for some time still, as the current contract existing between Apple and Google is still in effect for a while still. However, analysts have said Google were caught off guard by Apple's decision to wipe Google maps off its new operating system and replace it with its own maps application.

Apple released the iOS 6 recently and at the same time presented its new "Maps" application to the public. Apple's map app has been built in conjunction with GPS mapping company TomTom.

The decision to drop Google Maps from the iOS 6 as made sometime just before Apple's WWDC event in June, according to The Verge.

However, since its launch the Apple Maps app has been widely rebuked as a software nowhere near ready for launch. Widespread reports of bugs and inaccuracies have plagued its release, and even embarrassingly this week forced Apple into making a public apology and naming alternative mapping apps customers could download as alternatives while they fix things up.

Apple has said its new mapping app would improve over time, but this has not stopped thousands of complaints and calls for Apple to bring back the much more advanced Google Maps app.